Federal agency chastises Pilgrim nuclear plant owner for shutdown

The Pilgrim nuclear power plant will be required to face another Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection now that the agency has finished its evaluation of the plant’s accidental shutdown in May.

Jon Chesto

The Pilgrim nuclear power plant will be required to face another Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection now that the agency has finished its evaluation of the plant’s accidental shutdown in May.

The commission on Monday issued a white inspection finding – that is, a finding of low to moderate safety significance – for the Plymouth power plant. The label is a rare reprimand for a nuclear plant: Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the agency, said eight white findings have been issued against nuclear reactors in the past year, as well as two more-stringent evaluations.

Plant owner Entergy Corp. determined that operator error caused the unplanned automatic shutdown, known as a scram, on May 10. The reactor was being returned into service after a refueling and maintenance outage, and was generating 4 percent of its capacity at the time. The plant’s safety mechanisms effectively shut down the reactor without harming anyone.

The federal commission issued a preliminary white inspection finding in September. Entergy challenged aspects of that finding, but the agency said Entergy didn’t present any evidence that would change its views.

The agency sent a special inspection team to Plymouth after the scram, and will now send another inspection team to make sure Entergy has addressed the issues that were raised.

Sheehan said the agency will wait until Entergy says it’s ready for the inspection. “We expect the company to step back from the event, look at the broader root causes of the event and also put in place changes to help ensure it doesn’t happen again,” Sheehan said.

The agency didn’t fine Entergy, but Sheehan said Entergy will still face a financial penalty because it will have to pay all the costs related to the inspection work.

Entergy spokeswoman Carol Wightman said the company has already taken several corrective actions, such as significantly increasing management oversight of the reactor’s control room and providing more guidance on reactor startup procedures to operators. She said she couldn’t comment on disciplinary actions taken against the operators who were responsible.

“We take this event very seriously,” Wightman said. “We’ll take the lessons learned from this event to improve our performance going forward.”

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey issued a statement applauding the nuclear agency for its reprimand, although he said he remains concerned that federal regulators aren’t doing enough to learn from the Fukushima meltdowns in Japan. Markey said the Pilgrim incident underscores the need to strengthen safety measures to ensure human error at a nuclear plant doesn’t result in a catastrophe.

Mary Lampert, founder of the Pilgrim Watch citizens group, said she was glad to see the agency take the May 10 incident seriously. “Fortunately the reactor was smarter than the people,” Lampert said. “But that might not always be the case.”